The folks who make Madden every year have an impossible job. They somehow have to come up with ratings for every single player in the league, and then have to deal with the criticism that follows from 32 different fanbases. Some ratings deserve the criticism, though, and that's certainly the case for LA Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker.
There are various Chargers Madden ratings that we can pick apart with a fine comb. Heck, Justin Herbert was given a lower rating than several quarterbacks he is undeniably better than. But that is rather straightforward; Dicker's rating is outright weird.
Dicker, who has established himself as one of the best kickers in the league, was given a 79 overall in Madden 26. If that wasn't weird enough, consider this: punter J.K. Scott was given an 80 overall.
With no disrespect to Scott, there is not a single Chargers fan on the planet who thinks he is a better punter than Dicker is a kicker.
Madden 2026 completely loses the plot with Chargers' specialist ratings
There is no world in which Dicker should ever get a lower rating than Scott. Sure, they are completely different positions, but this proves that EA didn't actually dive into what the ratings should be. They just slapped two numbers on the kicker and punter without giving it a second thought.
Dicker has made 93.7% of his field goals and 96.8% of his extra points since becoming the Chargers full-time kicker in 2022. Dicker has made 75 of 76 attempts from within 50 yards as a Charger. He has literally only missed one time on a field goal within 50 yards. Once.
And it's not like he has a weak leg. Dicker may not have the biggest boot in the world, but he has a career-long of 59 yards and is still respectable from deep.
Dicker was third in total field goals made last season while ranking seventh in field-goal percentage. Chris Boswell was the only other kicker in the league to have at least a 92% field-goal percentage with at least 40 attempts. Boswell was given an 85 overall rating.
Scott, meanwhile, was given the eighth-highest rating for a punter in the game. The highest belongs to A.J. Cole, who was given an 85 overall rating.
It's hard to see how EA landed on this rating for Scott. He ranked 23rd our of 34 punters in average yards per punt and 26th in inside the 20-yard-line rate. He was below the league average in both metrics.
Jack Fox, who was literally a First-Team All-Pro in 2024, was given a 79 overall rating — one point lower than Scott! How does that make any sense?
Look, I might be the only person in the world dissecting Madden ratings for kickers and punters, but something has to be said. It's not just that EA failed to properly rate the Chargers' specialists; they failed to properly rate any specialist in the league.
Something has to be done about this, which includes moving Cameron Dicker's rating up to a more respectable number.